Professor, mother, Texan. Book: THE GENETIC LOTTERY (2021) from @PrincetonUPress. Lab: Developmental Behavior Genetics @UTPsychology
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Apr 20, 2022 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
N=1 anecdata from today’s Austin to Houston flight: there was a striking disparity in rates of mask wearing between first-class and economy, which seemed to be only partially accounted for by age
Also: live from Houston airport: not only are bare midriffs back but so are visible belly rings
Apr 20, 2022 • 6 tweets • 1 min read
"When opposing groups of intelligent, highly educated, competent scientists continue over many years to disagree, and even to wrangle bitterly, about an issue they regard as important, it must sooner or later become obvious that the disagreement is a not a factual one...
... and that it cannot be resolved by calling to the attention of the members of one group (or even of the other) the existence of new data which will make them see the light...
Mar 28, 2022 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
"not having SATs/ACT scores to consider tends to raise socioeconomic barriers to demonstrating readiness for our education"
an interesting development: MIT reinstates its SAT/ACT requirement. worth reading the footnotes.
In this review, @Graham_Coop & @molly_przew allege that "it is hard not to interpret the book as saying that most of these GWAS effects are natural causes residing inside the brain, thereby nudging the reader towards genetic determinism". Let's take a look at what the book says!
@Graham_Coop@molly_przew The entirety of Chapter 5 is about the counterfactual definitions of causation, *and the boundaries of that definition*, including statements such as:
Jan 24, 2022 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
ignorant Q for the philosophy crowd:
Are there modern / recent philosophers who argue that (1) no you don't have free will but (2) yes you are morally responsible anyway?
not Dennett, not a compatabilist
is there a modern Calvin, a hardcore determinist who believes you couldn't have done otherwise, and also a retributivist who believes you are morally responsible and deserve to be punished
Nov 9, 2021 • 4 tweets • 3 min read
I really enjoyed this conversation with @laurahercher. Starting at about 22 min in, we talk about PGS effect sizes, their (lack of) portability, and why I think we should still be taking them seriously
@laurahercher featuring a shout-out to @familyunequal who posted this graph about the correlation between educational attainment and income (r2 = 16%)
Nov 9, 2021 • 6 tweets • 1 min read
In all seriousness, I think that — for all their flaws — public research universities are among the most amazing accomplishments of American society, and being able to spend my life working in one is a true privilege
I have taught literally thousands of undergraduates, and have mentored hundreds of RAs, and the portrayal of students as coddled or brittle or afraid of ideas just does not match my experience …
Oct 8, 2021 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Much skepticism re: end of NYC G&T focuses on perceived harms to children who would have otherwise tested into G&T — but also worth considering effects of mixed-ability groupings on children who would have otherwise not had the G&T kids in their classroom …
Example from higher-ed context: grouping with higher-scoring students actually hurt the academic performance of lower-scoring students: povertyactionlab.org/es/node/2019
Oct 6, 2021 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
my only take on Bad Art Friend: everyone has *at least* one Bad Science Friend but you are better off not thinking too hard about it
any editor of a journal will tell you: the people you are recommending as reviewers because you think they will be friendly and like your work? many times the harshest reviewers
Oct 5, 2021 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Diana's being snarky here (I think?) but ... she's not entirely wrong. Regarding "capitalism is eugenics" ... I personally don't find it useful to talk about Capitalism so much as the particular rules of our current capitalist system... 🧵
... in which case, yes, I consider to an opportunity structure where things that are very basic to human dignity, like food and shelter and health care, are gated by education, which is itself gated by traits that are partially influenced by genes, to be "eugenic" ...
Sep 22, 2021 • 11 tweets • 3 min read
A long review of THE GENETIC LOTTERY in @LAReviewofBooks, combining thought-provoking comments w/ some bewildering mischaracterizations. I will respond at length to reviews later, after I've had time to synthesize, but for now... lareviewofbooks.org/article/why-dn…
I want to highlight this paragraph, where the reviewers argue that the influence of genetics is "underwhelming" by ... pointing to the fact that children resemble their parents (?!)
Sep 16, 2021 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
Sigh...
when people claim that you're arguing LITERALLY THE OPPOSITE OF WHAT YOU WROTE....
"when the ‘hereditarian left’ argue that seeking change to social structures won’t be effective in eliminating inequality, or that certain inequalities are fixed and unalterable.."
I can already tell that this is going to be a game of infinite whack-a-mole that I am destined to lose, but to be clear:
Changing social structures will be effective at eliminating inequality, and genetically associated inequalities are not fixed or unalterable
Sep 6, 2021 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
I have been a regular reader of the @NewYorker for my entire adult life, but I never imagined I would have the honor of having my work described in its pages:
“Harden’s overarching idea was almost universally described as both beautiful and hopelessly quixotic”
To which I can only say…
Aug 20, 2021 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
gave some advice to my first year PhD students today and am now repeating it here in case anyone else in transition finds it useful:
your first month is about establishing sustainable habits and routines. that’s it. that is your main job right now.
a lot of success in academia comes down to (1) having ideas and (2) being able to execute them. Having ideas is like sleep training a baby. You CANNOT force a baby to sleep.
“The grossness of Fisher’s eugenic beliefs, combined with the brilliance of his scientific observations, raises the question: what do we do with the science of terrible men?
This question is personal.“
aeon.co/essays/what-do…
Thank you for responding to this piece with such encouraging feedback! I really appreciate you reading, even if you find you ultimately disagree.
If you include this as a reading for your course / journal club, I’m available for Zoom Q&A with your class — so please email me.
Jan 19, 2021 • 15 tweets • 3 min read
The “Should we get rid of the GRE?” conversation and the “Should we pay undergrad RAs $15/hour?” conversation have three things in common that I think are really unfortunate — 🧵
(For the record, I personally think we should keep the GRE and that the minimum wage should be $15 but I know a lot more about psychometrics than labor economics so I’m more confident about the former opinion)
Dec 2, 2020 • 23 tweets • 3 min read
Some musings about graduate admissions, standardized testing, etc while I wait for my coffee.... these are things that seem obvious? but are maybe not obvious?
1. any proposal to get rid of X is simultaneously & necessarily a proposal to use Y instead. If you drop the GRE, for instance, what are you using instead?
Sep 21, 2020 • 12 tweets • 3 min read
My favorite part of this @NathanJRobinson critique of DeBoer’s “cult of the smart” is when he describes a position that is pretty damn close to mine as “a little bit of a mindfuck”:
currentaffairs.org/2020/09/we-don…
In my thread on DeBoer, I objected to his characterization of heritability — he is weak on the understanding of genetics. But I think this critique gets it wrong too, with too sweeping dismissals of the idea that we could ever say anything about individual diffs
Sep 19, 2020 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
“the reflexive turn to blame individuals for how they choose to behave when left adrift in the sucking, soulless chasm created by large-scale institutional infirmity” - from @rtraister
Why are college students choosing to go to parties?
Why are parents choosing to pull their kids from public school?
Sep 17, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
As an ex-evangelical, I am waiting for someone to write a piece on how evangelicals were primed for QAnon by years of reading Frank Peretti novels
My favorite novel in the 7th grade was This Present Darkness, which involves a tentacular conspiracy between college professors and government officials to take over whole towns and turn their citizens to demon worship
Sep 11, 2020 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
Thinking about this in relation to @kate_manne’s point about how government functions are feminine-coded when they are derided (eg, the “nanny state”). The devaluing of “women’s work” leads us to miss this hugely important point 👇🏻
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